Advanced topics in human behaviour

Recommended Prerequisites

Evolution. Biology of behaviour.

Teaching Methods

Lectures followed by a discussion of one of the texts proposed for discussion. Tutorials for the development of the monograph.

Learning Outcomes

The aim of this unit is to propose a deepening of discussion and reflexion on the evolution of human behaviour. In which way natural selection shaped our behaviour, how environmental and social challenges, associated with the development of human culture interacted to produce the extremely well succeded evoultion of our species, its ubiquity until the start of a new era: the anthropocene.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

We will discuss topics such as naturla selection and the evolution of behaviour; behavioural adaptation and the human niche; understand the world - perception, cognition, development, learning and teaching; cooperation and conflict; sex, beauty and reproduction; language evolution; intelligence; cultural evolution; the future of human evolution.

Head Lecturer(s)

Paulo Jorge Gama Mota

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 30.0%
Synthesis work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Boyd, R. 2018. A different kind of animal. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

Cartwright, J. 2017. Evolution and Human Behaviour. 3rd Ed. Palgrave, London.

Henrich, Joseph (2016). The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating our Species, and Making us Smarter. Princeton University Press. Princeton NJ.

Losos, J. & Lenski, R. 2016. How evolution shapes our lives. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ.

Vince, G. 2019. Transcendence. Allen Lane, Penguin, London.